Forms: 1 lást, lǽst, lǽste, 4–8 laste, 4–5 lest(e, 4– last. [OE. lást masc., footstep, lǽst fem., boot, lǽste fem., shoemaker’s last, cogn. w. Du. leest masc., OHG. leist (MHG. leist, mod.G. leiste(n masc.), last, ON. leist-r foot, sock (Sw., Da. läst last), Goth. laist-s footstep, track (ἴχνος), cogn. w. OHG. (wagan) -leisa track, rut (MHG. leis(e fem., geleis truckway, mod.G. geleise, gleise rut); by most recent scholars referred to a Teut. root *lais- (: lĭs-) to follow a track (whence in immaterial sense Goth. lais pret.-pres., I know, and the related words: see LEARN v., LORE), cogn. w. L. līra furrow. Some, however, would connect it with the Teut. *laiþ-, laiđ- (: OE. líðan to go); see LOAD sb.]
† 1. A footstep, track, trace. After OE. only in Sc. phrase Not a last: nothing, not at all.
Beowulf (Z.), 132. Hie þas laðan last sceawedon.
971. Blickl. Hom., 127. Man dæʓhwamlice þa moldan nimeþ on þæm lastum.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxiv. (Pelagia), 102. Oure verray spouse, rekis nocht a laste how foule ore vnfaire we be. Ibid., xliii. (Cecile), 580. Þu ma with þi handis taste, Þo þu ma nocht se a laste.
a. 1500. Ratis Raving, I. 2339. That louit neuer his lord a last.
2. A wooden model of the foot, on which shoemakers shape boots and shoes.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 125/32. Calopodium uel mustricula, læste.
a. 1300. Sat. People Kildare, xiii. in E. E. P. (1862), 154. Hail be ȝe sutlers [? read sutars] wiþ ȝour mani lestes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 298/2. Leste, sowtarys forme, formula.
1483. Cath. Angl., 209/1. A Laste of a sowter, formula.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 54. That as he were a Coblers eldest sonne, would by the laste tell where anothers shooe wrings.
1644. Jessop, Angel of Eph., 6. These Lawyers … stretch Scripture as they please, just as the Shoe-maker doth his leather with his teeth, to fit it to his Laste.
1714. Gay, Trivia, I. 35. Should the big Laste extend the shoe too wide.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXV. 192. [A prize-fight] between two brethren of the last.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes (1850), 69/2. Occasionally there is a drowsy sound from some lone weaver’s shuttle, or shoemaker’s last.
b. transf. and fig. ? Obs.
a. 1592. H. Smith, Wks. (1866–7), I. 391. All three are of one last.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 138. I set my braines vpon an vpright Last.
1607. Middleton, Michaelm. Term, I. i. Here’s gallants of all sizes, of all lasts.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 372. Lesse matters set on the Friers lasts, make seely Papists beleeve [etc.].
1625. Fletcher, Noble Gent., III. ii. As though his spirit were a last or two Above his veines and stretcht his noble hide.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. liii. (1739), 94. The Normans had reduced the Saxon law … unto their own Last, which stretched their desire as far as the estate would bear.
c. With allusion to the proverb Let the cobbler stick to his last (‘Ne sutor ultra crepidam’).
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. ii. 40. Heere it is written, that the Shoo-maker should meddle with his Yard, and the Tayler with his Last.
1605. Heywood, If you know not me, Wks. 1874, I. 210. Shoomaker, you goe a little beyond your last.
1692–4. R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccxxv. (1708), 245. The Cobler is not to go beyond his Last.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 330. To enter upon these discussions would be carrying the shoemaker beyond his last.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 53. Great evil may arise from the cobbler leaving his last and turning into … a legislator.
3. Comb., as last-maker.
1583. Faversham Par. Reg. (MS.), John Wythers, an olde man, a lastmaker.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 8. The second sort of lever is presented to us in the cutting-knives used by last-makers.
